VALERIE ALEXANDER
Co-founder Valerie Alexander brings 25 years of experience in senior leadership, having served as a close adviser to some of the nation’s most influential elected officials, including President Bill Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Senator Richard Durbin. She also played a key role in designing a bipartisan program that involved the presidential centers of Presidents Johnson, Bush (41 and 43), and Clinton.
Valerie's extensive background includes serving as liaison to state elected officials on behalf of presidential campaigns and holding various roles requiring close collaboration with numerous governors. She has also served as a Senate Judiciary Committee law clerk, where she focused on criminal justice reform issues including the First Step Act, conviction review units, and judicial confirmations. In addition to her policy and political work, Valerie served as Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for Edelman Public Relations, where she built global marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.
On a personal level, Valerie’s family has been directly impacted by the criminal justice system, both as victims of violent crime and as relatives of incarcerated people—giving her a deeply personal perspective on the need for change.
In 2022, Valerie enrolled in law school to apply her expertise and skills navigating the policy landscape directly to the justice system. She went on to form AJFA to establish a national platform to drive meaningful policy reform and to represent clients who have been wrongfully convicted.
valerie@andjustice.org
LAURA NIRIDER
Co-founder Laura Nirider brings 15 years of experience as a prominent lawyer, criminal justice expert, and public advocate. A former law professor at Northwestern University, Laura has helped exonerate more than 20 innocent individuals around the country and is publicly known for her work on high-profile cases, including the West Memphis Three and Brendan Dassey of Netflix’s Making a Murderer.
Laura is regarded as a leading expert on several aspects of the criminal justice system, including police investigations, interrogations, juvenile justice, and exonerations. Her briefs and research have been cited by several courts, including the United States Supreme Court, in cases establishing greater protections for children; she has co-authored several scholarly book chapters and articles with renowned experts; and she is a sought-after speaker by both lay audiences and legal audiences. In 2019, Laura and her colleague Steven Drizin undertook a popular global speaking tour that covered forty cities and four continents. In subsequent years, her podcast, False Confessions, written and co-hosted with Drizin, debuted at #1 on the Apple charts and won a Webby People's Choice Award.
Inspired by the public’s explosive interest in stories of injustice, Laura formed AJFA to engage everyday people, elected officials, and changemakers around the nation in work that, previously, some had been lucky enough not to see.
